


Operation Dump-Our-Coach

by Ysavvryl



Category: Persona 3
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Tennis, Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-08
Updated: 2019-09-08
Packaged: 2020-10-12 16:44:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20567585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ysavvryl/pseuds/Ysavvryl
Summary: Everything going wrong can be connected with 'Ms. Kanou is a jerk', so it's about time that she got kicked out.





	Operation Dump-Our-Coach

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SophieAyase](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SophieAyase/gifts).

“Look guys, I’m sorry,” Rio said, absentmindedly twirling her racket in her hand. “I said a lot of things I shouldn’t… especially that relationships are stupid. I’ve just been,” she glanced over at Minako who quickly smiled in encouragement. She was such a vibrant girl. “…well, it’s been really stressful trying to lead the team. Ms. Kanou doesn’t care, and we don’t have anybody who can be a proper coach, so I’ve been trying too hard to fill that role. The seniors hardly show up anymore either. I was being too hard on everybody, I know that now.”

“I know, it really sucks,” one of the other girls said. “I mean, I did want to play tennis too, but it seemed like nobody but you two cared anymore. Someone even said we were losers for sticking around and not trying to find boyfriends or something. I just want to have fun.”

Another girl nodded. “Right! So many of the girls around me just care about looks or getting a boyfriend, and they keep nagging me if I’ve found anybody yet. Like, can’t I have a life outside of stereotypical girl stuff? And I don’t know about you guys, but my parents have been so pushy about being in as many club activities as possible to pad out a college resume.”

“I know how that is,” Rio said. “My Mom says I should be in some other club that isn’t a sweaty sports club that won’t be useful past getting in college.”

The other girl grumbled and stamped a foot. “It’s ridiculous how much pressure they put on me when I want to enjoy my high school life! When it feels like everyone is unmotivated and our club adviser doesn’t even care to learn the sport, it’s hard to keep motivated. But Rio, you must’ve been under the most pressure because you got elected the junior leader and all the seniors bailed. Whoever we nominated would’ve been in a terrible spot. Again, we’re really sorry we weren’t trying harder.”

It made her feel so happy, and yet crying at the same time. “Thanks, guys. Let’s… let’s just focus on having fun from now on, alright? We’ll do the best we can at tennis and show that we still care.”

“Yeah, we’ll do fine!”

Then Minako chuckled, some mischievous gleam to her eyes. “We will! And hey, how about we dump Ms. Kanou?”

“Huh?” Rio asked, along with the others.

She put a hand to her chin. “Well, I was checking on the school guidelines and it says that the adviser should supervise a club at least once a week. But just today has been only the second time I’ve ever seen Ms. Kanou. That alone should prove that she’s not doing her job.”

“But we need an adviser to stay a club,” one of the other girls said.

“Then we rally for a new one too,” Minako said. “She’s probably just using this to pad out her resume as well, for bonuses or whatever.”

“Like she pads out her bra, huh?” one of the other girls asked, making them all giggle.

“Well not that we have proof, but she’s got to be.”

“For which one?” Rio asked.

“Both, of course!”

“Plus, there’s all that business with her and Kenji, which somebody’s got to do something about,” Minako added.

“What’s this about Ms. Kanou and Kenji?”

And just like that, Rio felt mad again. Keep it cool, she told herself. “It’s ridiculous,” she said sternly, clenching a fist. Keep cool, even if this was wrong. “Kenji’s in love with Ms. Kanou, which she knows about and has been stringing him along for a while now. Like she had him buy a pair of concert tickets for her with his own money, but then canceled at last minute without returning them or paying him back.”

“That’s not just ridiculous, that’s horrible,” another girl said, with others nodding along.

“What, do you love him or something?” one of the freshmen girls asked.

“No,” she said with a frown. “We’ve been friends since elementary school and that’s just fine by me. I know he’s not the brightest guy around and it isn’t the first dumb thing he’s gotten involved with. Sheesh, it just makes me mad that he’s so blind to how wrong it all is!”

“He really does need to grow up.”

“Hey, I’ve heard talk about how Kenji isn’t the only student she’s messed with,” one of the juniors said. “My older sister went to Gekkoukan too and she said she had a different boy wrapped around her fingers every year. She asks them for favors and stuff, but teases them and never actually returns their affections.”

“Oh yeah, I hear one of the senior boys now was her favorite pet last year,” another said. “I know a few seniors, including him; he’s been so depressed since April.”

“If she’s that rotten, then we ought to see about getting her fired,” Minako said.

Rio nodded, feeling a strong determination ignite. “Yeah! Since she’s gone now, how about we go over to Wuck and start planning how to dump her as a coach and teacher?”

“Aren’t we supposed to practice today?”

“Eh, we can take a break for a day,” Rio said, then made herself smile. “And celebrate that we’ve all gotten back together, with the resolution to stick together no matter what happens!”

“Yeah!”

And with that determination and excitement, the girls all headed out to plot out Operation Dump-Our-Coach.

* * *

It took some doing, including convincing several teachers to let them go a bit early for a club activity, but the tennis team got a table in the cafeteria set aside to start their protest. There was a petition for signatures of support from other students, alongside copies of the declaration they had come up with and sent to the principal, Ms. Kanou, and a few other teachers. To get noticed, they’d made up large colorful signs with slogans like ‘Save Our Tennis Team!’ and ‘We Want Respect!’. One of the freshmen even brought along some balloons to further draw attention to their table.

The signatures were slow in coming, although most of the students who came by at least picked up the declaration paper to see what was going on. Despite that, it was turning out to be a fun time, sharing lunch with the team and chatting about this or that. There had been a moment’s worry when the student council president showed up. “I hope you’re not disrupting lunch,” Mitsuru said in an icy tone that sounded dangerous. “We normally don’t allow this kind of occurrence unannounced, especially as a protest.”

“Sorry, but we didn’t want to get blocked from doing this either,” Rio said, summoning up her courage as best she could. “We had to act.”

“It’s fine, Mitsuru, I’ll keep them in line,” Minako said with a smile that caused some of the tension to melt into titters. She even offered their declaration to her. “Did you hear? Our club adviser, Ms. Kanou, doesn’t know or care about tennis, nor does she show up most weeks. All the responsibility for coaching has fallen on Rio here.”

Mitsuru took the paper and glanced it over. “I see.”

“A good portion of the team has dropped out too,” Minako added sadly. “But those of us here are really dedicated to keeping the team together. We’re hoping for another adviser, one who can at least encourage us and mediate arguments even if they don’t know much about tennis either.”

“That’s right, we want a proper coach of some kind,” Rio said, amazed about the familiarity that Minako had with Mitsuru. Then again, didn’t they live in the same dorm?

After a moment, Mitsuru smiled and nodded. “In that case, I sympathize with you. Have you sent this to the principal and teachers?”

“Yes, just this morning,” Rio said.

“Good, then I’ll excuse you for today if any questions arise,” she said, even taking a moment to add her signature to the petition. “I’ll also convince the rest of the student council to support you, so please come to us if you would like further assistance, or other events to rally support.”

“Wow, thanks Mitsuru!” Rio said, now grinning. If they had her support, then it seemed certain that something would be done about Ms. Kanou. “We were going to post the petition on the bulletin board in the lobby later, for more signatures.”

“That should be fine,” she said, then pardoned herself to see to other business.

Once she was gone, everybody laughed. They must have been cheered up by the support too. “Wow, Mitsuru is great, isn’t she?” Rio said. “She’s got brains, beauty, and power.”

“She can certainly kick ass,” Minako said, amusing them even more.

Minako was the same way too, Rio thought. And on top of that, she didn’t let anything get her down, was a great listener… but Rio also thought that she shouldn’t hold on too much about these feelings. She never did, since it’d be awkward depending on how it was taken. Still, girls were meant to be beautiful, right? And guys, well, they didn’t catch her attention as much as other girls did. Boys could be decent friends, at least when they weren’t being stupid from being horny.

Then Minako elbowed her, startling Rio. “Hey, could you stop by the library after school? I have an idea, but I have to convince somebody else to help.”

“Oh, s-sure thing,” she said, wondering a moment if Minako wanted to go off somewhere with just her, perhaps. But that was silly, since she mentioned somebody else.

“Good.”

As the afternoon classes droned on, Rio kept thinking about Minako. How caring she was, how cute she was in every way (and beautiful too in the way she served and gracefully kept on her toes in a match), how clever she could be… and how nice it might be if she took her hand, or hugged her again but with different meaning… did love really just happen to you? Or was it a bunch of little things, building up on top of each other until you wanted to let them know how precious and wonderful they were? But would Minako be all right with being loved by her?

After school, she went by the library as asked. Rio usually didn’t come here unless she had to for an assignment as most books didn’t interest her. But Minako seemed just as home here as she did on the tennis court. She smiled and waved her over to the desk once she spotted Rio. “We have to keep this quiet, since we’re in the library, but there’s something more can do. But first, this is Saori, another member of the Library Committee. And this is Rio, the junior leader of the tennis team.”

Something about Saori seemed even better suited to the library, perhaps the very mature poise about her. “Oh, hello Rio,” she said with a small smile.

“Hi, nice to meet another of Minako’s friends,” Rio said, smiling back. “So how does this help us with Ms. Kanou?”

“We’re going to unnerve her with guilt,” Minako said, taking a library newsletter from a small stack and passing it over. “About a month ago, the committee’s adviser asked us to do a love advice article to fill up some space for the newsletter. It worked pretty good at getting people to read it, so I thought we might do an indirect snipe at her.”

“Why would you want to unnerve someone?” Saori asked. “I saw your petition to get another club adviser earlier today; that’s a very bold move.”

“It’s because Ms. Kanou is terrible,” Minako said.

Rio frowned a bit, mentally reminding herself to keep it down because they were in the library. “Right. Well if you saw the petition, you probably saw our declaration of how she doesn’t coach or help us unless she absolutely has to, and even then she skips out as soon as possible. But the thing is, she’s also manipulating one of my guy friends that absolutely infatuated with her and he definitely isn’t the first student with a crush that she’s taken advantage of.”

“Oh my,” Saori said, taken aback. “Although, something about Ms. Kanou always seemed insincere.”

“I know, right?” Rio said. “And she’s even teaching the ethics class, for goodness sake. Kenji’s a decent guy, actually, but he can be as dumb as a sack of bricks and has already been swindled by her at least once.”

“But isn’t she getting married soon?” Saori asked.

“Huh, is she?” Rio asked, dumbfounded.

“That’s the first I’ve heard of it,” Minako said.

Glancing aside nervously for a moment, Saori then nodded and spoke quieter. “I don’t want to be a gossip, but she said so herself in a class I was in. It seemed like some off-hand personal comment at first, but then she went on bragging about the engagement, saying that she’d probably move away for a much better life with her wealthy husband and advising us girls to get attached to a good man as soon as possible to have a good life. Actually, it was an awkward class for a lot of us.”

“Well she’s clearly not talking about Kenji,” Rio said, clenching her fist and resisting an impulse to pound the desk. “Then I’ve really got to get him to wake up to reality. But if it’s a love advice column, can you mention people by name?”

“It’s better not to,” Minako said, pointing out the advice column from last month. “We just made this all up at the time, since obviously there was nobody to write in questions for a new feature. And we don’t have anything for this month either except the space for two question and answers. So I’ve been thinking, we split this up into two. One can be a generic ‘I have a huge crush on my teacher! How can I ask them out?’ and then reply that it’s not a good idea and would get the teacher and student in really hot water.”

“Oh, so then it’s not clear which teacher and which student,” Rio said.

She nodded. “And for the other one, we can switch things about and say, ‘My boyfriend asked me to buy some tickets for our date, but then canceled and I heard he went to the show with another girl. He said it was a mistake, but I still feel really bad.’ Because that is something Ms. Kanou apparently did with Kenji.”

“Well we don’t know if she went,” Rio said. “But she definitely didn’t pay him back for it. He was telling me that he wasn’t sure how to ask about it, then bluffed off that it didn’t matter to him when it did.”

“That is trouble,” Saori said thoughtfully. “I suppose for an anonymous column, we could suggest that it may indeed be an honest mistake, but might also be a red flag that they’re taking advantage of them. And if their love is being taken advantage of, they should stand up for themselves and break up.”

“And emphasize that it’s not the fault of the one at a disadvantage,” Minako added.

“Then could you do that for us?” Rio asked. “It might make Kenji think about it, or make others notice. Although, I’m not sure if he’d pick up a library newsletter.”

“He’s in my class, so I could slip it to him secretly,” Minako said.

Saori nodded. “Sure, we’ll get right to work on it.”

* * *

Ms. Kanou and another teacher, Ms. Toriumi, showed up at practice unexpectedly. Rio was watching over a quartet of freshmen who were holding doubles matches to prepare for a potential competition. Ms. Kanou clearly didn’t mean to join them as she was still in a dress and high heels. When she ordered them to stop the match, Rio said, “They’re doing really well, so let them finish this round at least.”

“I don’t have long to be here and I’m your adviser, so stop practice at once,” Ms. Kanou insisted.

“The round shouldn’t take long, right?” Ms. Toriumi asked.

“No, not unless they get really into rallying,” Rio said. These four had just gotten into tennis, so she’d hardly said as much before one pair failed to catch up to the ball. Rio then blew a whistle she’d gotten from Yuko. “Okay girls, hold up a bit since Ms. Kanou wants to talk.”

“Sure!” they agreed, after one of them went to fetch the ball.

Once the girls were gathered (and clearly not too happy with this), Ms. Kanou asked, “Now what’s going on with this petition that’s turned in, about replacing me as the team adviser?”

“Didn’t you read our declaration?” Rio asked back. “That explains everything.”

“I don’t remember getting it,” Ms. Kanou said.

“We left it on your desk and passed copies out to other school staff and students,” Rio said. “And we left one up by the petition posted on the bulletin board. You couldn’t have missed it.”

“Wasn’t there some paper from the team that you said was unimportant and put right into the recycling bin?” Ms. Toriumi asked.

“That must have been something else, because I’m sure I never got it,” Ms. Kanou said, trying to play it cool.

“Yeah right,” one of the girls in back said, making others giggle. Ms. Kanou gave them a death glare, but they ignored it.

“Well it said that you’ve been a problem for us rather than a leader,” Rio said sternly, using the tone she used in correcting the others. “You’re rarely here with us and when you are, you freely say you don’t care and leave us to instruct each other. A bunch of girls who are signed up for the team aren’t even here because they don’t see the point in caring or trying either because of you; they’re just using this to make their school reports look good to their parents and potential colleges. But those of here really do care about playing and trying our best! As such, we want an adviser or coach who will support us better.” She got cheers from the others about this.

“Well there’s nothing wrong with using club membership to bolster a college resume,” Ms. Kanou tried to argue.

“There is too!” Rio said, keeping fierce. “It’s a lie to say you belong when you don’t participate! And it ends up taking money away from the other sports teams, right? If we claim to have so many members, but over half of them are inactive, that’s cheating the system, right? I don’t even know what you’re doing with the club funding because I never see anything about it.”

“The club funding has nothing to do with you,” Ms. Kanou said, looking angry herself.

Minako spoke up for her, saying, “It does when Rio is practically the club leader at this point due to the senior leader not being around.”

Then Ms. Toriumi said, “That sounds like the kind of thing that should be investigated.”

“It’s nothing, and we don’t really use much of it,” Ms. Kanou said. “But that’s not what’s important. In fact, what’s so important about tennis to you girls? There’s much more important things you can be focusing on, like your grades and relationships. You might not think the latter issue is pressing, but time will slip by and you will need to find a good husband before you’re alone forever.”

“Tennis is important to us because we love it!” Rio declared, getting agreement from the team. “This is how we have fun and keep in good shape. And we do care about our grades, working to keep them good enough to stay. But we’re not here to gossip about relationships.” Then she paused. “Well sometimes we do, but that’s when we’re not out on the court. We’re not going to give up the sport we love, no matter what others might say. And if you’re going to tell us that this isn’t important, then we don’t want your name attached to our team.”

“They have some good points,” Ms. Toriumi said. “It’s better to be well-rounded, in my opinion.”

“Well it doesn’t matter since I’m leaving the school soon,” Ms. Kanou said. “Would you please retract the petition and all that nonsense? It doesn’t matter.”

“It does so matter because we wanted our voices to be heard,” Rio said. “We’re not just going to shut up about it now.”

“That’s a horrible stance to take for a young woman,” Ms. Kanou said. “You sound like a delinquent who doesn’t care about society. You all agree with her?” Once the team agreed, she sniffed. “Well then you’ll all get the stigma of being uncooperative and unreasonable troublemakers for starting a petition against your own coach, I hope you know. That’ll taint how others see you for a long time.”

“It’s worth it because you nearly ruined our club with your poor attitude,” Rio said.

“It won’t because you’re quickly come to regret making that petition,” Ms. Kanou said darkly.

“Hold on, they seem reasonable to me,” Ms. Toriumi said. “If you failed to fulfill your duties as their coach, then you deserve to get called out on it.”

“I did nothing wrong,” she insisted. “Anyhow, I’m out of time for you all, so this club session is over.” She then walked out immediately without making sure they disbanded.

“What a sore loser,” Minako said.

“I agree,” Ms. Toriumi said, then sighed. “Sorry girls, I thought she’d be more reasonable. But don’t worry. If she tries to cause problems for you, I’ll speak with the rest of the staff to clear things up. I believe she’s mostly worried about the protest showing up on a recommendation letter to another school, especially since she’s quitting for marriage so abruptly.”

“Thanks, Ms. Toriumi,” Rio said. “We’re gonna try to keep meeting together, even if we have to become an unofficial club.”

Ms. Toriumi then smiled at them. “Well you girls certainly have passion for your sport. I think that’s important too. Actually, I was considering holding your club adviser position at least temporarily, until we see if the school’s replacement for her can act as one.”

“Really?” Rio said. “That’d be great!”

“I’ve been impressed at your actions myself,” Ms. Toriumi said, in a friendlier manner than she usually had in class. “At first, I tried speaking with the gym teachers. Unfortunately, they have their hands full managing the other school teams. I used to play tennis back in school myself, but it’s been a long while and I wasn’t the greatest. Would you mind helping me get back into shape?”

Rio laughed, happy for how this worked out. “Sure thing!” Noticing that the teacher was wearing flat soled shoes which should be decent, she asked, “Want to take up a racket and play against some of the freshmen? I warn you, some of them are pretty good.”

“Sure, let me set my bag down and I’ll be right over,” she said.

* * *

By the time Ms. Kanou left, it was clearly in disgrace. She had asked about who in the library committee was writing the love advice columns. No one told her, fortunately, even though she’d made quite a scene outside the library while trying not to pinpoint herself as the one whom both questions were about. By the next day, gossip was thick about how it was her and trying to guess who the student with a crush was. Kenji tried to deny it, but Rio had talked with him and tried to assure him that he shouldn’t be blamed for what happened.

Not long after, Minako showed up to practice tired. She wasn’t as focused and her exercises weren’t in good form, so Rio excused her to referee practice matches and spot others doing exercises. After practice was over and everything was cleaned up, she invited Minako over to Hagakure. “I usually end up coming here when Kenji wants to hang out,” Rio said once they got their ramen. “Though it is really good. Sometimes I think about coming more often.”

“It is really good ramen compared to some other places I’ve been,” Minako said. “How is Kenji doing?”

She frowned at the thought. “Well he’s finally realized what’s been happening and that she really means to marry someone else; he thought that she meant to marry him, apparently.” Rio sighed. “So now he’s all depressed and mopey, which sucks. I did my best to talk with him and help, but then I had to tell him that it was because we were old friends, not because I wanted to be his girlfriend. Thankfully, Junpei asked me about him and he’s going to cheer Kenji up instead.”

“That should work out,” Minako said. “I’d help too, but we haven’t spoken much aside from him awkwardly hitting on me only to backpedal and say he wasn’t interested in girls his age. Pardon me for saying so about your friend, but he’s kind of a moron.”

Rio laughed at that. “Well I won’t deny that. I keep thinking, maybe this will encourage him to change for the better, but I keep waiting for that change. Though I really am not interested in dating him; he’s just a friend.”

“Nothing wrong with that,” she said.

“Right,” she said, although worries were starting to creep into her thoughts again. “Hey, do you have anybody you have a crush on?”

“No one in particular,” Minako said. “I have a bunch of friends, but nobody’s asked me out.”

“That seems odd.” She smiled and tried not to seem too interested yet. “I mean, you’ve got a lot going for you that would attract all kinds of people. You’re cute and athletic, for a start. Though you do seem to have a crazy schedule, what with keeping up with the tennis team, the library committee, and even some smaller clubs I hear. And then you get such good exam scores that I’m kind of jealous. Is doing all that stuff and keeping up with your studies what’s making you so tired today?”

“Kind of,” she said. “I was up late studying last night, and then something came up really late that kept me up even longer. But I wanted to show up to practice at least and do what I could. I’ll take it easy this evening.”

“Well you’d better because you don’t want to be wearing yourself out,” Rio said, patting her arm. “Working out when you’re tired is more likely to lead to injuries, you know.”

“Yeah, I should be fine next time,” Minako said. “What about you? Got anyone you’re interested in?”

“Well, I dunno about it,” she said, then ate some ramen hoping that her blushing wouldn’t be too obvious. “I mean, I’m not about to claim that relationships are stupid now, cause there are people who put a lot of importance to them. A lot of people, actually. But all the traditional romance stuff, I still don’t get what’s the big deal about. Stuff like candlelight dinners, or going to sappy movies together, that just seems so boring for a lot of work. I might be able to stand a picnic date, but I’d rather be with someone who wouldn’t mind being my jogging partner.”

“Or maybe going to an amusement park together?” she asked.

Rio nodded. “Right! Because that’d be fun for me. And somebody who would have fun with that too, I think I’d be interested in being with them. I wouldn’t want a romance to take over my life either. There’s some girls in my class who seem to talk about nothing but their boyfriends and I think to myself, but what about you? You should be able to do things for yourself and still love someone else.”

“That sounds pretty good to me.”

“Yeah.” Rio thought briefly about leading into something else, but the chatter in the ramen shop made her nervous. What if someone overheard them and made fun of her for it later? She wouldn’t mind it on stuff so far, but if she kept talking… “Um, it feels really busy in here, doesn’t it? Of course, Wuck’s usually the same way in the afternoon.”

“There are a lot of people,” Minako agreed. “Hey, want to come visit the shrine that’s near my dorm building? It’s usually pretty quiet there, and they’ve got some nice playground equipment.”

“Really?” Rio said, smiling at the thought. “All right, once we’re done eating.” She then felt safe in changing to other topics, like how Ms. Toriumi was doing as the new club adviser and what they’d do over summer break.

Rio hadn’t been in the area that Minako lived in much, so it was much different seeing this shrine on a normal day. And it was a quiet place in the afternoon, with just the rustle of leaves overhead. There were some benches around that other couples might use if they visited this shrine. But they preferred climbing up to the top of the jungle gym to chat there.

“I always loved the view from atop a good jungle gym like this,” Rio said, feeling glad that they’d decided to come. “When I was a kid, they used to call me the queen of the jungle gym cause I could scramble all over the one in the schoolyard quicker than anybody else.”

“Well then I should respect you as the queen,” Minako joked, even bowing her head.

“T-then just don’t ask me to prove it now, because it’s been a while,” she said, kicking her feet out. “Actually, there was something I was thinking of telling you, but it was too crowded back at Hagakure. And, I’ve never told anyone else about it, not even my parents. So um, would you keep quiet about it for now? Cause I’m not sure what I want to do about it.”

“Sure, I promise,” she said without hesitation. “What is it?”

She brought her feet back in to tap on the bars instead. “Well, remember how I said that I don’t get a lot of romantic things? Part of it’s because I’ve never seen a boy in that way.” Rio sighed on recalling more. “Back in middle school, there were girls and guys that were already dating and I thought they were trying too hard to be like adults. I even know a girl who claims she’s been in love with her boyfriend since kindergarten, when they would’ve just been playing at dating instead.”

“Some people are like that,” she said. “I saw the same kind of thing.”

Rio put her hand on her chest. “But me? I was never into dating, or guy idols, or what guy at school was the hottest. I’ve been friends with a few guys, but nothing sparked past that. Instead, I actually get more interested in the girls around me. No guys stand out to me, but some girls really do, for being beautiful, or funny, or making me smile. I’ve mostly accepted that about myself, but I feel like a lot of people would turn on me if they learned that.”

“That would suck,” Minako agreed, then smiled and patted her arm. “But it’s all right. If you feel that way, then it’d just feel bad to fight it, right?”

“Yeah, thanks,” she said, smiling. But she couldn’t fully relax yet. “Actually, I like you a lot, I mean, more than a lot of people. I might’ve quit tennis for good if you hadn’t joined and stuck with me even when I was being stubborn and bossy. You’re kind of weird for that, but I really appreciate it. Your support means a lot to me.”

“Well it was the right thing to do, once I noticed you were all stressed out,” she said, looking up and thinking over something. “You’ve got a lot of spirit and courage, and you’re a pretty awesome person to boot.”

“Not as awesome as you are,” Rio said, feeling bashful but wanting to speak her mind anyhow. She wanted Minako to stay close to her. “Really, you seem to be a natural at everything you do no matter what, and then you’re so nice and friendly that I bet you could make anyone smile. You certainly make me smile any time I see you. So um, would you want to go out with me?” Was she really asking this? Her heart beat quicker and she suddenly wasn’t sure what to do if she got turned down. “I know it’s weird, but…”

“It’s not weird,” Minako said. “Not to me anyhow. You’ve become a really fun friend to me, but I would like to go out with you too.”

“Really?” she asked, looking over at her.

“Really,” she said, although now that they were this close, Rio could see how tired she was again. And then Minako tried to kiss her, but accidentally bumped into her forehead instead. “Whoops, sorry.”

Rio giggled, then tried to finish the kiss. It started to work out better, but when she tried to lean in closer, she shifted a little too much and had to grab the bars to stay balanced. “Heh, don’t worry about it. Practice makes perfect, right?”

Minako laughed too. “So they say.”

As tempting as it was to kiss her again, Rio took hold of her chin instead. “But you’re still really tired. We’ll meet up again, maybe for a run date? But as you said, take it easy for now and get rested back up. I want to see you in good shape next practice, okay?”

“Okay, got it,” she said, then took her hand to get her to let go of her chin. “I love you, Rio.”

A shiver of excitement ran through her blood on hearing those words. “I love you too, Minako.”

* * *

Rio had wanted to take Minako running across Moonlight Bridge because that was a good distance. However, that brought out an unfortunate fact: she’d lost her parents on that very bridge one night many years ago. Rio felt terrible for bringing it up, but Minako was forgiving. There was no way Rio could have known that before, after all. Instead, they jogged between the mall and the train station, even stopped at a café for coffee along the way. It turned out to be a wonderful afternoon.

Since they were both sweaty after the jog, Rio invited MInako back to her home for a quick shower and some homemade smoothies. Her parents wouldn’t be back from work for a while. She thought for a bit of just coming back to her bedroom without her clothes before chuckling at herself. That was much too soon, although it did seem like a fun idea for when they were more familiar with each other. And when they wouldn’t have the potential of others barging in on them, that too. She re-dressed after her rinse off and went back to her room.

Minako was browsing through a book she had since she’d said it was fine. “You’ve got a lot of books on tennis and track,” she said.

“Heh, guess I do,” Rio said, coming to sit on the bed next to her. “When I first got onto the middle school tennis team, I was so excited that I took the beginner’s handbook the coach gave me and read it cover to cover in one weekend. I’ve never been much of a reader, but I read that book all the time, even in class or on the train. Then I picked up more books and watched more matches, trying to learn everything I could to be a better player. It did pay off this year since I had to basically take over coaching duties. Although, if our school had a girl’s track team, I’d be right there with them too.”

“I might’ve gone for a track team too, although being on the tennis team is fun,” Minako said. “We can always start training ourselves for running in college.”

“Sure, that’d be great!” Then she leaned into Minako. “And we’d get more excuses to be like this, relaxing and cuddling together afterward.”

“How much cuddletime do you want?” she asked, putting an arm around her and smiling.

“As much time as we can get,” Rio answered. “Although, we could always try a little more than that, if you want.”

In that moment, it felt like their love could last forever.


End file.
